The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9,1970;it began operation on December 2,1970,after Nixon signed an executive order. The order establishing the EPA was ratified by committee hearings in the House and Senate.
The Exxon Valdez was an oil tanker that gained notoriety after running aground in Prince William Sound,spilling its cargo of crude oil into the sea. On 24 March 1989,while owned by the former Exxon Shipping Company,captained by Joseph Hazelwood and First Mate James Kunkel,and bound for Long Beach,California,the vessel ran aground on the Bligh Reef,resulting in the second largest oil spill in United States history. The size of the spill is estimated to have been 40,900 to 120,000 m3. In 1989,the Exxon Valdez oil spill was listed as the 54th-largest spill in history.
Marianne Lamont Horinko served as Acting Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from July 14,2003 to November 5,2003 during the first term of President George W. Bush. Prior to this appointment Horinko was Assistant Administrator for the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER) at EPA,having been confirmed by the U.S. Senate on October 1,2001. She continued on as Assistant Administrator until June 1,2004.
Superfund is a United States federal environmental remediation program established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response,Compensation,and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). The program is administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The program is designed to investigate and clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances. Sites managed under this program are referred to as Superfund sites. Of all the sites selected for possible action under this program,1178 remain on the National Priorities List (NPL) that makes them eligible for cleanup under the Superfund program. Sites on the NPL are considered the most highly contaminated and undergo longer-term remedial investigation and remedial action (cleanups). The state of New Jersey,the fifth smallest state in the U.S.,is the location of about ten percent of the priority Superfund sites,a disproportionate amount.
William Doyle Ruckelshaus was an American attorney and government official.
The administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency is the head of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),and is thus responsible for enforcing the nation's Clean Air and Clean Water Acts,as well as numerous other environmental statutes. The administrator is nominated by the president of the United States and must be confirmed by a vote of the Senate.
Carol Martha Browner is an American lawyer,environmentalist,and businesswoman,who served as director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy in the Obama administration from 2009 to 2011. Browner previously served as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) during the Clinton administration from 1993 to 2001. She currently works as a Senior Counselor at Albright Stonebridge Group,a global business strategy firm.
Kenneth Lee Salazar is an American lawyer,politician,and diplomat who is the United States ambassador to Mexico. He previously served as the 50th United States Secretary of the Interior in the administration of President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013. A member of the Democratic Party,he previously was a United States Senator from Colorado from 2005 to 2009. He and Mel Martínez (R-Florida) were the first Hispanic U.S. senators since 1977;they were joined by Bob Menendez in 2006. Prior to his election to the U.S. Senate,he served as Attorney General of Colorado from 1999 to 2005.
The Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act was signed into law by President George W. Bush on January 11,2002. Brownfields are defined as,"A former industrial or commercial site where future use is affected by real or perceived environmental contamination." The Brownfields Law amended the Comprehensive Environmental Response,Compensation,and Liability Act by providing funds to assess and clean up brownfields,clarifying CERCLA liability protections,and providing funds to enhance state and tribal response programs. Other related laws and regulations impact brownfields cleanup and reuse through financial incentives and regulatory requirements.
Lisa Perez Jackson is an American chemical engineer who served as the administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from 2009 to 2013. She was the first African American to hold that position.
Russell Errol Train was the second administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),from September 1973 to January 1977 and the founder chairman emeritus of World Wildlife Fund (WWF). As the second head of the EPA under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford,Train helped place the issue of the environment on the presidential and national agenda in the late 1960s and early 1970s,a key period in the environmental movement. He was a conservative who reached out to the business community and Republicans. He promulgated the idea that as the economy of the nation was growing quickly,public as well as private projects should consider and evaluate the environmental impacts of their actions.
Linda Jane Fisher was a Vice President Safety,Health and Environment and Chief Sustainability Officer of DuPont.
The environmental policy of the United States is a federal governmental action to regulate activities that have an environmental impact in the United States. The goal of environmental policy is to protect the environment for future generations while interfering as little as possible with the efficiency of commerce or the liberty of the people and to limit inequity in who is burdened with environmental costs. As his first official act bringing in the 1970s,President Richard Nixon signed the U.S. National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) into law on New Years Day,1970. Also in the same year,America began celebrating Earth Day,which has been called "the big bang of U.S. environmental politics,launching the country on a sweeping social learning curve about ecological management never before experienced or attempted in any other nation." NEPA established a comprehensive US national environmental policy and created the requirement to prepare an environmental impact statement for “major federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the environment.”Author and consultant Charles H. Eccleston has called NEPA the world's “environmental Magna Carta”.
The Science Advisory Board (SAB) is a United States group of independent scientists selected by the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The board provides advice to the agency on the scientific and technical aspects of environmental problems and issues. Upon a request by the Administrator,the board reviews the scientific aspects of any reports or other written products prepared by the agency. Congress established the board in the Environmental Research,Development,and Demonstration Authorization Act of 1978.
The climate change policy of the United States has major impacts on global climate change and global climate change mitigation. This is because the United States is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gasses in the world after China,and is among the countries with the highest greenhouse gas emissions per person in the world. In total,the United States has emitted over a trillion metric tons of greenhouse gasses,more than any country in the world.
The National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling is a bipartisan presidential commission,established by Executive Order 13543 signed by Barack Obama on May 21,2010,that is "tasked with providing recommendations on how the United States can prevent and mitigate the impact of any future spills that result from offshore drilling." It came about as a result of the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The first public hearings,held on July 12 and 13,2010 in New Orleans,included scheduled testimony from Federal government officials and representatives of BP on the status of the spill and clean-up efforts,as well as from local officials,community leaders,and scientists on the economic,cultural and ecological impacts of the oil spill on Gulf Coast communities and ecosystems.
Regina McCarthy is an American air quality expert who served as the first White House national climate advisor from 2021 to 2022. She previously served as the thirteenth Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from 2013 to 2017.
The environmental policy of the Donald Trump administration represented a shift from the policy priorities and goals of the preceding Barack Obama administration. Where President Obama's environmental agenda prioritized the reduction of carbon emissions through the use of renewable energy with the goal of conserving the environment for future generations,the Trump administration policy was for the US to attain energy independence based on fossil fuel use and to rescind many environmental regulations. By the end of Trump's term,his administration had rolled back 98 environmental rules and regulations,leaving an additional 14 rollbacks still in progress. As of early 2021,the Biden administration was making a public accounting of regulatory decisions under the Trump administration that had been influenced by politics rather than science.
The White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy is an office within the White House Office that is part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States. It is headed by the Assistant to the President and National Climate Advisor,which is president's chief advisor on domestic climate change policy. In addition,the National Climate Advisor serves as vice-chair of the National Climate Task Force.
Michael Stanley Regan is an American environmental regulator. He has been serving as the 16th administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency since March 11,2021. He is the first African American man to serve in the role.
